A Fox's Color
by Buddykins
Summary: After Nick calling in sick several days in a row and even having to miss out on movie night Judy begins to worry about her closest friend and her police force partner. When she finds Nick locked up in his room at his apartment something has changed; his signature smirk nowhere to be found along with any of his happiness. Trolls inspired storyline!


**Summary:**

After Nick calling in sick several days in a row and even having to miss out on movie night Judy begins to worry about her closest friend and her police force partner. When she finds Nick locked up in his room at his apartment something has changed; his signature smirk nowhere to be found along with any of his happiness. Judy will do anything it takes to figure out what happened to her friend and what she has to do to fix it.

* * *

 **The Fox's Color:**

"And finally officer Hopps, patrol duty." chief Bogo said as he finished up the last of the assignments and he had almost made it out of the door; almost.

"Chief Bogo." Judy called as she skirted around the remaining officers so she could talk with the mammal. "Chief Bogo, does Nick have a stakeout assignment? He hasn't been in to the precinct in a few days or answered me either." She questioned hoping to hear good news from the horned mammal.

But she wouldn't be hearing any confirming assignment, "I'm sorry officer Hopps, your partner called in requesting leave of absence, he said he had things to take care of." He said as he neatened the papers in the folder "Why don't you try his apartment after your shift?" the chief suggested before heading out of the small door frame and back up to his office; and while he would never admit it he was extremely curious as to what his officer had gotten himself into.

With nothing else to do in the meeting room the rabbit officer made her way out to her squad car to start on her patrol. The first couple of hours were relatively boring for Judy, and that let her mind wonder. Her head was filled with thoughts of what could have made Nick decided to call off a few days, but what put her deeper in thought was why he hadn't told her about it; and that only made her worry.

The day was overcast just like the forecast predicted, everything seemed fine and everything was fine; the city was just enjoying a nice day all in all today. Despite the cool breath and the wonderful smells that spring was filled with the day just wasn't so happy for the lone officer. So after gnawing at her lip in thought she pulled out her phone to text her partner and friend. ' _Hey Nick is everything okay? Chief said you called in a few days, but I just wanted to check on you._ ' she sent the quick message and tapped her foot as she waited impatiently for a response.

However she wasn't happy for long, just a minute or so had passed when the fox's reply came in revealing only short message brushing her off. ' _I'm fine Carrots._ ' she waited for a minute more to see if he had anything else to say but to her displeasure he didn't.

Thumping her foot against the floor rapidly was to only appropriate way for her to publicly express how angry she was while in uniform. But the scowl on her face paired with the thumping was more than enough of an indicator for the mammals around her at the time.

* * *

The rest of her shift passed along with nearly a hundred parking and traffic tickets later she was finally off the clock parking violators could rest in peace; for awhile at least. After clocking out back at the precinct Judy drove straight to Nick's apartment complex and marched right up to her partners shared apartment with Finnick before giving the door a few firm knocks. The thumping of her foot was interrupted by her phone going off in her pocket.

She checked it to see a new text from Nick, ' _I said I'm fine._ ' the message was short, to the point, and enough to enrage the small officer.

"Nicholas Wilde! You get out here and open this door before I kick it down!" she huffed filled with anger at being dismissed so rudely by her best friend and gave the door a good kick showing how serious she was; at this point she was turning a slight shade of red under her fur, and it wasn't a blush either.

' _You don't have a warrant.'_ a second aggravating text came through only fueling the fire even more.

And just as Judy was about to fulfill her end of the warning a deep voice came from the hall. "Bunny!" she turned to see Finnick walking down the hallway from around the corner. "I ain't paying for another repair job because you can't keep it in your pants." he said in regards to the last time she kicked down their door to satisfy her ' _needs'._

Now Judy was embarrassed by the remark being said out loud and was brought back to a calmer mindset. "Can you open the door for me? Please?" she added hoping that the older mammal would let her in.

Sure enough Finnick opened the door, more so for himself but he didn't close it on her either, "Just keep it down." he grumbled half heartedly as he opened the fridge looking for something to eat.

Judy made her way over to his room and tried the handle; which of course was locked. "Come on Nick, what's wrong? You've been avoiding me for almost a week." she pointed out defeated. In her head she hoped that by guilt tripping him she could get him to open the door.

"Carrots go away, I-I'm fine trust me." he called out through the door half hoping that she would actually leave but also that she wouldn't; he had missed her these past couple of days.

"Nick I'm your partner, you can tell me what wrong." Her voice was now soft and concerned.

On the other side of the door she heard him give a deep sigh, "Okay, just wait until I tell you okay?" he asked getting an okay from her without hesitation. His footsteps came to the door slowly and he unlocked the door before his footsteps retreated back to the middle of the room. "Alright you can open it." he said almost defeatedly.

For a second Judy was unsure about what was so bad Nick thought he had to hide it from her, but none the less she turned the handle and pushed open the door. The first thing that caught her eye was nothing, the room was pitch black and she couldn't see anything inside, flipping on the lights she saw a large pile of blanket on the bed and she knew was him. "Nick please, what's going on?" she asked as she sat down next to him.

There was no answer from her partner, slowly she grabbed onto the blanket and started pulling it off of him. At first she was confused and didn't believe what she was seeing, but after attempting to blink away her confusion there was no doubting it. "Nick why are you grey?" The bunny's voice was filled with shock, worry, confusion, and too many other emotions to process completely.

"I don't know why Judy. It just started spreading the other day and I don't know how to make it go away." Nick's voice was clearly broken much like the look on his face as he gazed out at the floor. His fur was a matted looking grey but the thing that hit Judy the most was the lifeless color that replaced Nick's once vibrant emerald eyes.

Judy wrapped her arms around him without thinking about what she was doing, she just knew that she needed to be there to support her partner-her friend. "It's okay Nick, I'm right here for you. We can get through _this_." she said into his fur as he pulled her closer against himself seeking that comfort.

When Judy pulled away so she could look her partner in the eyes both of them saw the outline from where she had hugged him the vibrant orange it used to be. Both officers were delighted as that same color began to spread with a glow across his body; all the way from his ears to his tail. "Thank you Judy." he smiled gratefully to her.

"That's what partners are for. I'm just glad you aren't feeling so grey anymore." she said getting a chuckle out of her joke and a scowl from Nick.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

Well that's that I guess right? Let me know what you thought!~

I wrote this awhile back from a prompt from Bgnsteal (Tumblr and FF) as a sort of Zootopia/Trolls crossover and decided now would be a good time to post it since I'm a bit slow on updates thanks to finals. I just finished my last one the other day so you can expect more updates soon, but work will slow me down a bit still.

Thanks for reading, good luck with all your things!~


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